“Mister George” will not return for six more years. Liberia’s outgoing President George Weah acknowledged his defeat in Tuesday’s presidential election and congratulated opponent Joseph Boakai, whose victory was confirmed Saturday with new figures from the electoral commission.
“Tonight, the CDC (Weah’s party) lost the election but Liberia won. It’s time for elegance in defeat, declared the former football glory elected in 2017, in a speech Friday evening on public radio. I spoke to President-elect Joseph Boakai to congratulate him on his victory. »
The results published on Saturday by the electoral commission, representing 99.98% of the offices, gave 50.64% to Boakai, 78, and 49.36% to Weah. Boakai had a lead of just over 20,000 votes on Saturday. Around 2.4 million Liberians were called to the polls on Tuesday for the second round of the election and participation exceeded 65% according to figures published on the electoral commission website.
Free elections, but deaths during the campaign
Beyond the choice of the person called to lead this country in search of stability after the years of civil war and the Ebola epidemic, one of the issues of the election was the peaceful and regular conduct of the election. and the acceptance of the results, while democracy is being undermined by a succession of coups d’état in West Africa. Coups d’état have occurred in particular recently in Mali, Burkina, Guinea and Niger.
Winner, Joseph Boakai, 78, will take charge of this English-speaking country of around five million inhabitants, one of the poorest in the world, for six years. He is taking his revenge against the man who largely beat him in the second round in 2017 with more than 61% of the votes, but who his detractors accuse of not having kept his promises to fight poverty and corruption.
This election was the first organized without the presence of the United Nations mission in Liberia created in 2003 (and left in 2018) to guarantee peace after civil wars. Clashes during the campaign left several dead. Incidents were reported between the two rounds, raising fears for the aftermath of the election, especially in the event of a close outcome.
